Plugin: Sage Job Queue (SJQ)

[rsagetv99]

Hi slugger, I was wondering if you (or some other people) could help me.

I have been using SJQ since version 1, and I successfully upgraded to version 2, and have successfully configured commercial detection using comskip.

I have been trying to add a different job that will compress some shows using Evil's mediashrink app. So far I have not gotten it to work correctly. For some reason, the job starts fine, but then detects user intervention and then exits. The error is as follows:

2009/06/04 15:36:57.873	Encoding Paused by user command, 'r' to resume
2009/06/04 15:36:57.873	
2009/06/04 15:36:57.873	Encoding Quit by user command

I'm wondering if maybe SJQ could be sending any characters while the job is running, like "p" which would pause the process, or "q" which would cause it to quit.

It sounds crazy but I am running out of ideas. I am able to run mediashrink manually by dropping a recording on the file, and I was also able to run it via DirMon2 without any problems.

I have tried different switches/commands but nothing seems to work.

On a related note, when I run the job I am searching for Title =? "Ground" and I get the error

MediaVariables.getVars(File f): Cannot get MediaFile object from database!

My SJQ db was like 13MB so I ran a vacuum and got it down to less than a meg. I am still getting the error though.

One last thing, I started out using snapshot 480, but tried downgrading to 466 and still had the same problem. However, I am not sure if the downgrade was successful, because when I go to Help\About, I still see it at version 480. Maybe that's a small bug.

[nyplayer]

rsagetv99,

Post how you are running mediashrink batch etc.... I am successfully running media shrink and SJQ... We need more input from you.

[wayner]

I need some advice on how to handle an issue - I want to use Comksip and then the Sage Transcoder to convert my South Park episodes to AVI (MPEG-4 High Quality Deinterlaced).

The problem arises because I want to rename the files to only their episode title. For example when I record the show it will have the following filename:

\\server\RecordedTV\SouthPark-Jakovasaurs-123456-0.mpg

running Comscript will create:

\\server\RecordedTV\SouthPark-Jakovasaurs-123456-0.edl

After I do the transcode in SJQ using the _Transcode function I have the oupput of the transcode go to my \\TV Shows\South Park folder so that the file name becomes:

\\server\videos\TV Shows\SouthPark\Jakovasaurs.avi

The problem is that the .edl file is still in my RecordedTV folder and it has the wrong filename (it includes SouthPark and then the ID#). Anyone have an idea on how I can correct this problem? If Comskip was able to run on .avi files then I could hold off on running Comskip until the file was transcoded and renamed, but you can't run Comskip on avi files, can you? And even if you could there is the added complication that as far as SJQ is concerned the transcode function completes immediately. In reality it takes my server about 5 minutes to transcode a South Park episode. So even if I could get SJQ to start Comskipping a avi file I would have to wait until the transcode was down - but how do you do that?

I guess one alternative would be to run Comskip and then use VideoRedo to cut commercials using the Comksip output. Then I could just transcode the editted file and no edl file would be needed anymore. The downside to this methodology is that you would lose part of the show if Comskip was inaccurate at commercial cuts.

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Post how you are running mediashrink batch etc.... I am successfully running media shrink and SJQ... We need more input from you.

I've tried a few different ways. I tried directly calling it without any switches.

I tried the batch file that Slugger suggested:

@ECHO OFF
set DIRECTORY="C:\shrink\"

:LOOP
IF (%1)==() GOTO NEXT
set COMMAND=%COMMAND% "%~f1"
shift
GOTO LOOP

:NEXT
cd /D "%DIRECTORY%"
start /BELOWNORMAL /WAIT /B mediaShrink.exe %COMMAND%

As well as the way you suggested.

:CPU BELOWNORMAL
:MAX 1
  "S:\\vrdnbencode\\penguin\\mediaShrink.exe \"%c%\" /inPlace /divx /cutComm /cliBitrate 1000 /onePass /horizontalScale 512 /mp4 /savelog"

Also tried other variations with minimal switches.

Let me know if you need more info.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by wayner

I need some advice on how to handle an issue - I want to use Comksip and then the Sage Transcoder to convert my South Park episodes to AVI (MPEG-4 High Quality Deinterlaced).

The problem arises because I want to rename the files to only their episode title. For example when I record the show it will have the following filename:

\\server\RecordedTV\SouthPark-Jakovasaurs-123456-0.mpg

running Comscript will create:

\\server\RecordedTV\SouthPark-Jakovasaurs-123456-0.edl

After I do the transcode in SJQ using the _Transcode function I have the oupput of the transcode go to my \\TV Shows\South Park folder so that the file name becomes:

\\server\videos\TV Shows\SouthPark\Jakovasaurs.avi

The problem is that the .edl file is still in my RecordedTV folder and it has the wrong filename (it includes SouthPark and then the ID#). Anyone have an idea on how I can correct this problem? If Comskip was able to run on .avi files then I could hold off on running Comskip until the file was transcoded and renamed, but you can't run Comskip on avi files, can you? And even if you could there is the added complication that as far as SJQ is concerned the transcode function completes immediately. In reality it takes my server about 5 minutes to transcode a South Park episode. So even if I could get SJQ to start Comskipping a avi file I would have to wait until the transcode was down - but how do you do that?

I guess one alternative would be to run Comskip and then use VideoRedo to cut commercials using the Comksip output. Then I could just transcode the editted file and no edl file would be needed anymore. The downside to this methodology is that you would lose part of the show if Comskip was inaccurate at commercial cuts.

Why not write a task that renames or copies the edl to the name you need? Creating the edl before the transcode finishes shouldn't matter so just add a task to copy the edl if it exists. So you'll have three tasks for each recording:

COMSKIP
COPYEDL
_TRANSCODE

Or you can add the edl copy to the end of the batch file you're using to run comskip (if you're using a batch file).

[nyplayer]

rsagetv99,

Both batch jobs run fine for me... One thing I do not use UNC paths.. I am not sure if you do... I believe there was a problem in handbrake when using UNC paths something about the slashes. This appears to be a mediashrink problem not an SJQ problem... all that SJQ passes to the batchfiles is the file.

[wayner]

So you mean that I could just have a task like this:

COPYEDL
COPY %c%.edl \\server\TV Shows\South Park\%s%.edl

That's a lot simpler than I thought!

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

rsagetv99,

Both batch jobs run fine for me... One thing I do not use UNC paths.. I am not sure if you do... I believe there was a problem in handbrake when using UNC paths something about the slashes. This appears to be a mediashrink problem not an SJQ problem... all that SJQ passes to the batchfiles is the file.

Nah, not yet. Just trying to process locally right now.

[nyplayer]

rsagetv99

Try the one below

shrink.bat

@ECHO OFF
set DIRECTORY="C:\shrink\"

:LOOP
IF (%1)==() GOTO NEXT
set COMMAND=%COMMAND% "%~f1"
shift
GOTO LOOP

:NEXT
cd /D "%DIRECTORY%"
c:
start /I /BELOWNORMAL /MIN /WAIT mediaShrink.exe %COMMAND%

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by wayner

So you mean that I could just have a task like this:

COPYEDL
COPY %c%.edl \\server\TV Shows\South Park\%s%.edl

That's a lot simpler than I thought!

Not quite. Write a batch file that takes the file names as parameters and have the batch file do the copy. There is no SJQ task that will directly copy files.

[wayner]

But can't you call a DOS command rather than a batch file? For example I currently have a task that looks like this:

COMSKIPMPEG
{
:CPU NORMAL
:MAX 2
:MAXRUNRATIO 0.5
"C:/comskip/cskip.bat \"%c%\""
}

Wouldn't this be a valid client task?

COPYEDL
{
:CPU NORMAL
:MAX 2
:MAXRUNRATIO 0.5
"COPY \"%c%\".edl \\server\TV Shows\South Park\"%s%".edl"
}

Assuming that I have all of my \s and "s right?

But I guess it wouldn't be too hard to instead of COPY in the example above to call CCOPY.BAT which would look like this: "copy %1 %2"

[Slugger]

If that works, sure, but I don't think the Java API is going to run COPY directly unless it's an exe (as opposed to a shell command) - not sure how that works on Windows. If it doesn't, then the batch file should work fine. Post your results for reference.

[kfontenot]

Could someone please help me out and tell me where I can find the different values for the TRANSCODEOPTS option command.

[Skirge01]

Did you try the SJQ user guide? Transcodeopts is mentioned here.

[kfontenot]

Yes thank you I did read that section. I am actually trying to find the different values that you can use for the first input, the transcode profile. The user guide does not give those values. I have seen in different posts people using different values like "iPhone-Widescreen" and "MPEG4-High Quality Deinterlaced AVI". Where can I find a list of those profiles that I can use.

[Slugger]

Those profiles are the ones defined by SageTV for its transcoder. If you try to manually transcode a file from the Sage UI then the list of formats Sage gives you is the list of valid inputs for SJQ.

[wayner]

Slugger (or others)

What is the syntax for passing two parameters to a batch file that are media varialbes? I don't totally understand the use of \s and "s. I am trying

"c:/temp/test1.bat \"%c%\" \"%s%\""

but that only seems to pass the first media variable. I am assuming that I have a syntax error rather than a limitation on passing two variables.

[Slugger]

That looks right to me. Which media var isn't being expanded properly? Is it possible that the subtitle just isn't defined for the media object you're trying to process?

[wayner]

No that I think about it - that is very possible as I believe I tested this on a movie. Let me try it on a TV show to see if it works.

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

rsagetv99
Try the one below

That worked! Thanks

Can you tell me why?

Also, can you or slugger help me with the error that I am still getting? "Cannot get MediaFile object from database!"